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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!uunet!in3.uu.net!206.229.87.25!news.sprintlink.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!uuneo.neosoft.com!mypc From: conrads@neosoft.com (Conrad Sabatier) Newsgroups: neosoft.users.freebsd,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Free BSD trouble Date: Thu, 30 Jan 97 06:40:00 GMT Organization: What? Me, organize? Lines: 68 Message-ID: <5cpfsk$fqk@uuneo.neosoft.com> References: <32EAF919.17A0@neosoft.com> <5cflae$gal@bonkers.taronga.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 206.27.167.126 X-Newsreader: News Xpress 2.0 Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:34720 In article <5cflae$gal@bonkers.taronga.com>, peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva) wrote: >In article <32EAF919.17A0@neosoft.com>, >Matthew Hall <mhall@neosoft.com> wrote: >>Anyone have any suggestions? > >Buy the 2.1.6 CDROM from Walnut Creek. It's just out, it's the end point of >the current "-stable" development line, and it's got the latest drivers. > >Buy it as a "subscription" and it's $25, and you can cancel your sub after >one disc if you want. Not sure that'll solve his problems, Peter. I just got the 2.1.6 CD-ROM and, among other things, it: o <sigh> As usual, the same as with every previous version of FreeBSD I've used (since 2.1.0), still refuses to recognize the same IDE CD-ROM drive that Windows 95 has no problem whatsoever dealing with (thanks to a vendor-supplied driver, of course). In earlier versions I did manage to tweak the kernel config later, *after* installing, but *during* the install the CD-ROM was useless o Will not startup the install process from CD-ROM under DOS as described in the docs, thereby bypassing the need for creating a boot floppy (again, mainly because my BIOS does not correspond enough in every exact detail with those of the authors) o Will not even do the install from a DOS partition (distribution files copied from CD-ROM to a DOS hard drive), if said partition is greater than roughly 512 MB. FreeBSD *still* can't deal with DOS partitions beyond this limit. o Oh, and of course, my sound card *still* didn't work, either. Frankly, I find the latest release a major letdown. And I do mean *major*. After jumping through more hoops than you'd care to imagine just to get anything at all in the way of an upgrade to occur with this latest release, what happened? After installing XFree86 3.2, my system was most unceremoniously rebooted, after which I discovered, much to my unpleasant surprise, that my kernel (along with bin, sbin, etc, and a few other things) could no longer be found in the root slice. So, how does one install a kernel, using a disc that is unuseable from any operating system one currently has running? Answer? One doesn't. One sends said disk back to manufacturer, requesting refund and cancellation of subscription to automatic upgrade service. And please don't *even* mention "SCSI". I'm not about to rush out and spend wads of money just to accomodate an operating system (alright, many people *did* do just that for Win95, but that's different). So long, FreeBSD! Windows 95, you get an extra 3 gigs of hard drive! Maybe later, folks. It's been interesting, I'll say that. But I don't need this aggravation. Life's too short. I *will* miss it. But sorry. Let me know when you've ironed out all the kinks. Best wishes. -- Conrad Sabatier | Microsoft Windows 3.x/95/NT users: | conrads@neosoft.com | Visit my home page at http://www.neosoft.com/~conrads/ | for a copy of News Xpress, an excellent Usenet newsreader